The second day of the exam was underway. The exam took place over the course of several days, with students vying to be the one who killed the greatest number of boar.
Fang Yuan was currently in the lead, though Fang Zheng was close behind. There had been a few accidents up till now, but nothing serious.
The exam took place in a forest a bit of a distance from the village. Given this, several Rank 2 Gu Masters were scattered about to keep a close eye on the students and make sure that there were no big mishaps. Some Rank 3 elders were even near a central command fort set up by the academy elder.
Hunting boar was naturally difficult, even with the help of moonblades. Most students had chosen to work in groups, and yet, Fang Yuan was still pulling ahead- likely as a result of his Liquor Worm and higher cultivation realm- up till now, only Fang Zheng had managed to catch up to him and become Rank 1 Upper Stage.
But, that meant that Fang Yuan's advantage with the Liquor Worm would soon be gone.
Fang Zheng was in good spirits thinking of this as he went to the tent reserved for the class president and vice-presidents. It was not very grand, but was more than what the other students got. Which was practically nothing.
"Oh?" he said as he noticed something lying on the ground. A golden moonlight gu pin. "Brother left this lying here..." It was unlike Fang Yuan to drop or lose things, but it wasn't like it couldn't happen.
Immediately, Fang Zheng was struck with a thought. Something that he'd wanted to try ever since he was young, but had never actually done.
He put the golden pin on his uniform, pocketing his own silver pin, and then walked outside, trying to mimic Fang Yuan's behavior.
"Class president, greetings!"
Many people deferred their respect to him. It was quite nice to be though of as 'class president' and not 'vice-president.'
'If brother asks why I'm wearing this, I'll just say he dropped it and I was going to return it,' Fang Zheng thought. 'Is this how it feels like to be him? It feels... like everyone's scared of me! But they respect me too.'
As Fang Zheng walked to go hunt boar, Mo Bei shot him a cold look that surprised him. Right, he looked exactly like Fang Yuan now and the two of them did not have a good relationship.
Fang Zheng wandered away from the central area, always under the watchful gaze of the invigilators.
As he walked further and further away from the beaten track, eyes were locked onto him.
"Ah, I can't believe we're stuck here with babysitting these kids," a Gu Master in the bushes sighed.
"Keep your chin up, we have to be on guard for attacks."
"Puh-lease, who would attack anyone here?"
"There's Fang Zheng you know, the A-grade talent. The others would love to strike a blow against him."
"Yeah, but we're deep in our territory. There's no way that they would strike at us."
As he said that, Fang Zheng felt something swiftly fly over his head and imbed itself in a nearby tree.
The two Gu Masters hiding immediately stood up, feeling the sudden appearance of the aura of a Rank 3 Gu Master!
Reinforcements arrived in the form of two more Rank 2 Gu Masters, who quickly signaled the main headquarters.
"You," a shadowy figure said, leaping out of the woods. Whatever concealment gu he was using was now disabled as he was fully visible dressed almost entirely in black. Fang Zheng looked to see that what had nearly struck his head had been a long white rod- this was clearly some kind of projectile gu worm!
Panic began to set, and the Rank 2 Gu Masters yelled for Fang Zheng to run.
"Ah, the shadows lengthen," the man said. "It seems that fortune saved you from that blow, but I will have your head as of yet. Sneak attack!" He yelled out, striking at Fang Zheng again, though the Gu Masters blocked it. "Hmm...? Who is it that dares to fight the legendary... the one and only... Lord of the Mysteries?" He had realized that that name sounded much better than Mysterious Lord and went with it, striking a cool pose.
Finally, after so long thinking of a cool name for himself- he had found one that he felt that he could commit himself to. 'Lord of the Mysteries'- it was without a doubt very cool.
"If you're going to sneak attack someone, don't announce it before you do it! What's the point of announcing it then?" a Gu Master sneered.
"You make a compelling argument, however, I just emerged from closed door dual cultivation with your mother," Lord of the Mysteries said.
"Why you-"
"I have been tasked with eliminating that boy over there," Lord of the Mysteries said, moving to strike 'Fang Yuan' who had run away out of earshot. "I have no quarrel with you, as a matter of fact, I would rather to leave some witnesses alive so that you may spread word of my fame far and about. What say you? Stand down, and let me kill Fang Yuan and I will spare you."
"Hah- as if we'd ever!"
Two more reinforcements arrived.
"Good, good, good, just like your mother, I have no problem taking on multiple people at once," Lord of the Mysteries said. "Take this! Rank 3 Testicular Torsion Gu!"
A gu worm flew from his aperture, and snaked its way up a nearby Gu Master's pants, who then began screaming.
"Fiend!"
"How dare you!"
Moonblades flew at Lord of the Mysteries, though using a movement-based gu worm he nimbly avoided them and chased after 'Fang Yuan.'
He prepared his next attack. He was using Rank 2 Javelin Gu to attack Fang Zheng, though with the constant movement of running around, not only was it hard for the enemy moonblades to hit him, but also hard for him to hit his own target.
News quickly spread via an information-type gu worm to the Academy Elder. "We're under attack! A Rank 3 Gu Master has emerged to attack Fang Yuan!"
"Who could it be? The Bai or Xiong clan?"
"What does it matter- we'll find out later, let's behead the rascal first!"
"Wait," the academy elder said. With enough numbers, Rank 2 Gu Masters could wear down and eventually kill a Rank 3 Gu Master, depending on the enemy's skill level.
However, that was the question. How strong was this enemy? If they were confident enough to attack in a place like this, they had to be skilled.
But there was something that was off...
"That man is targeting Fang Yuan but... wouldn't the enemy's main target be Fang Zheng? No, what if this is a ploy by the enemy? What if they're actually after Fang Zheng? Both Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng look the same, so this could be the enemy's error. Or do they want to divide our forces to sneak attack Fang Zheng?" Fang Yuan was somewhat valuable, but Fang Zheng more so. Also, the amount of information that could be passed was rather limited- he did not know the full details of the issue such as the fact that the assassin said he was after Fang Yuan and not Fang Zheng. As it was, he would never have suspected so.
There were many irregularities however, in what was going on, which gave him an uneasy feeling.
There was a simple explanation for this all though - the assassin was just really dumb. However, there was no way that a ma like him would rest easy thinking like that.
"Where is Fang Zheng right now?"
"We don't know..."
"Damn it! Keep... keep most of our forces here. Send a small party to reinforce the people shielding Fang Yuan," the academy elder said through gritted teeth. Fang Yuan would just have to hope that he would be lucky enough to survive- between an A-grade and a B-grade talent, it was obvious who was more important. "And most importantly, find Fang Zheng!" It was imperative that they form a defensive core around Fang Zheng to protect him.